My wife's aunt Patty is coming from Venezuela to stay for 6 weeks.

She is the wife of a banker and they had it pretty good in the past. Now she may have to leave the country for good.
I was wondering if anyone here wanted to ask her questions about what she knows is going on in Venezuela.

I could ask her if she would be willing to answer questions and if so the questions could be sent to me and I'll ask her and compile the questions and answers for all of DU.

what do you yourself think about Venezuela and Chevaz

the situation is propaganda. I have no hard opinion either way.

I agree with that too, I have no questions at the moment but I do have a wanting to know answers about the situation there, desire. So I will be reading so as to gleam any knowledge that I can get. Thanks for the post

small middle class trying to take a powder as well?

Thanks.

Why not Paraguay

Miami or with my mother-in-law if and when she has to leave for good. Both her and my mother-in-law grew up in Venezuela but my wife's aunt married a Venezuelan and stayed for good. They were both born in New York City.

is not good for the upper classes.

The middle class is stuck while the upper classes have choices such as relocation. Funny, to keep their wealth intact, your relatives have to migrate to the US with its almost non-existent regulations/taxation for the wealthy.

post-Pinochet Chile ... post-Peronista Argentina ... post-Samoza Nicaragua ... etc.

Do you know what their political leanings are?

Good or like a leech?

Why do you post such shit?

Then look at the caracazo or sacudón massacre that kept the oligarchy in power back in 1989. Or perhaps a course in Latin American history that shows the abuse of power backed by the USA.

you sound very very unworldly.

Here's a tip though. Don't learn your politics from your Venezuelan relatives. And here's another tip: the fact of their destination likely being Miami is not a good sign.

"Dare to know", indeed!

IMMANUEL KANT
An Answer to the Question:
What is Enlightenment? (1784)

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! "Have courage to use your own understanding!"--that is the motto of enlightenment.

Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a proportion of men, long after nature has released them from alien guidance (natura-liter maiorennes), nonetheless gladly remain in lifelong immaturity, and why it is so easy for others to establish themselves as their guardians. It is so easy to be immature. If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, a physician to determine my diet for me, and so on, I need not exert myself at all. I need not think, if only I can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work for me. The guardians who have so benevolently taken over the supervision of men have carefully seen to it that the far greatest part of them (including the entire fair sex) regard taking the step to maturity as very dangerous, not to mention difficult. Having first made their domestic livestock dumb, and having carefully made sure that these docile creatures will not take a single step without the go-cart to which they are harnessed, these guardians then show them the danger that threatens them, should they attempt to walk alone. Now this danger is not actually so great, for after falling a few times they would in the end certainly learn to walk; but an example of this kind makes men timid and usually frightens them out of all further attempts.


more

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/kant.html

Aw, shucks. And there we wuz, thinking you wuz jist a hayseed.

Sapere aude
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Sapere aude is a Latin phrase meaning "Dare to know" or "Dare to be wise", or sometimes translated as "Have courage to use your own reason". Most famously, it is found in Immanuel Kant's essay "What Is Enlightenment?" as the motto of the Enlightenment. The original use seems to be in Epistle II of Horace's Epistularum liber primus <1>: Dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude ("He who has begun is half done: dare to know!").

So my translation was in fact more accurate than yours. But then I don't have to rely on Wikipedia.

When I was in college way back in the 70's I went to a Catholic college. I took as many philosophy courses as I could and at that school we were not permitted to study Kant because his ideas were contrary to much of the Church's teachings. All philosophy profs and hundreds of students walked out of class and stayed out until the school allowed Kant to be taught. The profs were not to grade students on their knowledge of Kant though.

Lovely broadbrushing. A hobby or do you do it for a living?

So you can say that to her yourself.

Or are you only brave enought to talk shit about a person you know on the internet?

The rich have been raping the poor there for centuries with our backing.

Also when I was working in SW Florida back in 2002 a cadre of rich Venezualan "investors" came to my office looking to move cash out of their country. They were obviously (on edit they came right out and said they hated him) bankers or real estate tycoons who hated the poor and Chavez.

As to speaking with her in person I'd rather not allow my phone number or real name get out to the Reich wing here on DU.

for centuries with our backing.

That simple n/t

Why pick on her?

in Venezuela. Facts are not on your side.

Nice come back.

And you don't actually know this woman. Perhaps some questions regarding getting to know her first would be in order before you ask about rape and such.

The scariest thing about Chavez is his supporters.

I would like to see you take her to a low-income housing development here, and ask her why the poor in Venezuela shouldn't have as decent a standard of living. I can't understand third world countries, with wealthy elites, continuing with the dirt roads and substandard poverty all around them. You would think they would clean it up just because it's ugly to look at and smell, even if they didn't care one wit about the people.

And get the answer back to you if possible.

If you look at all the poor countries it raises the question why they are so different from us.

It is easy to blame a group or accept some argument. I don't know what my wife's aunt's life style is nor do I know what she thinks. I want to find out and let you know.

it took the Union movement to change it..

The poor lived all over the city...mining, steelworking..etc...and they lived in the shadow of the mills in bad conditions.

Meanwhile there were wealthy homes sitting high on some of the hills ... the only reason they moved was because the soot from their own mills drove them to the "country"

The rich won't clean it up...even if it is to improve the view..

and housing projects of the 50's. Then later, projects for sharecropper shacks in the south. Government did it and if government hadn't done it, well I always say the poorer trailer parks are the equivalent of the tin-roof shanty towns of the past. Renters can't do renovations, landlords won't, but when the rentals are falling down after 20 years, it's always the renter who gets blamed. We really need someone with the courage to stand up and tell the truth about this stuff. I liked that Obama pointed out the gym he was in was built in the 1920's and had no air and kids are supposed to exercise in it. He also explained the tax base and how it would only generate $3 million, while a new school would cost $15 million. He totally gets it and I hope we see a lot more of this, from him and Edwards both.

she is used to the good life, as I would think being a bankers wife would afford her, and now she may have to leave. reckon she can give us any meaningful insight as to the real conditions there, really. Anyway, I don't mean to be ugly its just, well you know kinda makes me shake my head a bit

good life. And yes she had a good life. Her sister, my mother-in-law, says that all the time. While Patty had it good, her class did not do anything for the rest of the people and now it is over.

My mother-in-law and her sister were born in the Village in New York City. I don't know why but they were sent to live with their aunt in Venezuela when they were small girls. Patty grew up and married a Venezuelan man who became a banker. They were better off than most of the people there.

My mother-in-law moved back to the states and married a Puerto Rican man my wife's father.

Look at poor Carlos Zambrano!

1) What does she think is the reason so many Venezuelans are so poor? Is it their fault, solely, or are there factors outside their control that make improvements in their life difficult to achieve? How does the efforts of Chavez to improve education and health care for the poor fit into that?

2) How does she feel about the fact that the losing opposition party attempted a coup, removing Chavez from his elected position and suspending the Venezuelan constitution?

3) Did she agree with foreign nationals and corporations collecting about 90% of the revenue from Venezuelan oil and what does she think of Chavez changing that to just 50% (iirc)?

"El Caracazo," and how she perceived that event.

It would be more interesting than you can imagine.